The Best Law Firms In America According To In-House Counsel

Who has the best law firm brand? And what embarrassing ATL stories have they overcome to keep it?

trophy goldIt’s that time of year again when the good people at Acritas release their annual ranking of the best law firm brands in the business. Let’s be clear, being the strongest brand doesn’t necessarily make a law firm the most prestigious, or the best place to work, or the douchiest. But it does mean a certain firm is at the tip of a client’s tongue when they’re thinking about who to trust with their most important work.

How can we measure a law firm brand? Well, the methodology that Acritas employs uses data from a massive survey of 2,144 senior in-house counsel and 600 phone interviews, focusing on these five questions:

Top of mind awareness
Favorability
Consideration for top-level litigation
Consideration for major M&A
Most used overall

Without further ado, here are your top 5.

1. Skadden
2. Jones Day
3 (tie). DLA Piper
3 (tie). Kirkland & Ellis
5. Sidley

UPDATE: An earlier version erroneously labeled Kirkland as 4th instead of tied for third.

To see the rest of the Top 20 (Top 19 because of ties), check out Acritas.

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Just to keep these five firms from letting all this brand power go to their heads — or perhaps to prove how resilient these brands really are — let’s run down the most embarrassing story about each off the top of our heads.

Skadden: First, the Skadden D.C. office couldn’t suck it up and work while a band played on the street below. Then these crying babies tried to bribe the band with an insultingly low amount of money rooted in their fundamental disrespect for the musicians — as if they figured these guys were homeless beggars or something. The whole affair — dubbed “Buskergate” — painted Skadden as soft, elitist, insensitive, and stupid (yes, they called THE SECRET SERVICE to see if that agency would expend resources to stop the band), all at the same time. Glorious stuff.

Jones Day: Where to even begin with these people? They have no sense of humor, get benchslapped by cartoons, and worst of all they’ve been reduced to drinking Natty Ice.

DLA Piper: The big-time Clinton supporters don’t share the former Secretary of State’s facility for foreign affairs since they have no idea what countries their offices are in. Maybe they’ll figure it out on their next partners-only cruise.

Kirkland & Ellis: Do. Not. Write. Overreaching. Letter. Those tend to get you smacked pretty hard. Ignoring conflicts isn’t the best idea either.

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Sidley: I’m sure Sidley is super excited to be in the top 5 of law firm brands. But don’t expect them to send Acritas any thank you notes.

Acritas US Law Firm Brand Index 2016 [Acritas]

Earlier: Why Are D.C. Lawyers Such Frigging Babies?
Skadden D.C. Really Has No Idea What It’s Doing
Caption Contest Winner: A Sad Biglaw Bro In A Sad Biglaw World
Jones Day Does Not Have A Sense Of Humor
Biglaw Firm Throws Even Bigger Hissy Fit
Judge Uses Cartoons To Benchslap Jones Day
Biglaw Firm Going Viral For Its Political Leanings
DLA Piper Literally Doesn’t Know What Countries Some Of Their Offices Are In
Law Firm Rents Entire Cruise Liner For Partner Meeting While the Rest of You Look for Work
This Lawyer Just Wrote The Best Smackdown Letter You’ll See Today
Biglaw Firm Gets Benchslapped Over Conflicts
Biglaw Partner Wants You To Know You’re Ruining His Life With Your Thank-You Emails